We must ask ourselves, which is the right side of history? ….That’s something worth remembering as this controversial case continues to be debated and his fate awaits the judgement of others.

I’ve been following the Edward Snowden controversy with considerable interest the past several months. Until very recently however, I hadn’t come to any conclusions as to what this all means, nor even formed much of an opinion on the matter — particularly on how Snowden should be judged.

He’s a complex figure and this is a complicated matter, to be sure.

This confession might surprise readers, because I normally have an opinion about everything, especially when it comes to politics, national security, and foreign policy — all of which are strongly tied to the Snowden case. I’d like to deem this neutrality as evidence of an open mind. That’s to say, I don’t rush to every Pavlovian whistle when the Left commands us to march in unison.

This isn’t entirely the President’s fault. The obstructionist traitors known as Republicans haven’t governed or lead so much as they’ve blockaded just about every major piece of legislation that has anything to do with challenging American oligarchy. Republicans would rather see America fail and the country suffer than to see President Obama succeed. At anything.

Moreover, President Obama has received little significant support or guidance from his own party allies, now mostly an ineffectual milquetoast group of Democratic leaders governing as “Republican-Lite.” If there ever was a groundswell movement to steer the country towards a more progressive agenda, it’s now vanished — at least until half the working class is stocking shelves for slave wages at Wal-Mart while paying a quarter of their income in health insurance costs, which is eventually going to happen the way things are going. Then just maybe, we’ll quit buying the lies of unfettered free-market capitalism and nonsense about living in “freedom.”

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Writer’s Note: Earlier this week, I returned to Washington. D.C. for the first time in a long while. I lived in the District of Columbia and Arlington, Virginia (right across the Potomac River) for 12 years. So, my recent visit here rekindled some old memories.

The phone rang. This wasn’t a call I expected.

“Nolan, there’s an open seat tomorrow night in the game,” the voice said. “You want to come?”

“The game,” I asked? “You mean — THE GAME?”

“Yeah.”

“Deal me in!”

The voice and I agreed to meet the following afternoon at a hip downtown Washington bar on K Street where we discussed more specifics of “the game.” I was told this game was juicy, and I sure as hell needed the cash. Some wealthy, well-connected D.C.-insiders made up the regular player list. The game was spread a few times each month, usually on weeknights.

But what made the game really distinctive was it’s memorable location — at The Watergate.

Thirty-eight years ago tonight, President Richard Nixon resigned from the most powerful job in the world.

August 9, 1974 was a particularly muggy night in Washington, fitting for the national tragedy that was the final tortured two years of Richard Nixon’s doomed presidency.

Everyone in America knew what Nixon was going to say on television that incredible night — announcing to the world that he would become the first and only president in American history to resign from office. But until we actually watched it for ourselves, until we witnessed it, until we heard the President tearfully utter the fateful words, “I shall resign the presidency,” no one really contemplated the full force of gravity that was the tragedy and sorrow of that memorable night.

I was 12 years old when I watched Nixon’s resignation. During the spring leading up to that night, in school classrooms we watched the Senate committee hearings on Watergate, which were carried live on all three major networks. This was long before cable television, so everyone knew what was going on politically in this country, since that was all that was shown. And what grand theater it was — the nation’s first real reality show, with an astounding cast of characters, entwined in the gravest of controversies.

By the summer of 1974, just about everyone in America loathed Nixon — even Republicans. His job approval ratings hit an all-time low of 12 percent. Resignation was inevitable.

Richard Nixon was a divisive figure, to be sure, and very much remains so. He’s arguably the most vilified American political leader of the 20th Century by those on the left, and in the judgment of many. Perhaps, even deservedly so.

Yet behind his utter disregard for the U.S. Constitution during the crisis, and the crimes which eventually became known as the Watergate scandal, was a highly-accomplished man of tremendous intellect and great potential. Indeed, he very well might have gone down as the greatest LIBERAL since FDR, had his executive agenda not been diverted by the massive cover up and all-consuming series of events that led to his downfall.